Editor David Penman has defended his newspaper's policy of identifying school children pictured on his pages by their full names.

His comments came after a head teacher who was unhappy with the policy contacted the BBC to voice his concerns.

The head felt it was an open invitation for paedophiles to track down and harass children who may have appeared in the news.

David, who edits the Evening Telegraph in Kettering, said the row over identifying children in class photographs had been running for some time, with one head teacher refusing to allow the newspaper to take pictures of his pupils.

But he said the newspaper would continue with its policy of identifying children by their full name - as it had done for more than 100 years.

He added that there was no evidence of paedophiles using newspaper reports to target children.

And he said that he felt suggestions of just using each child's first name were inappropriate.

He said: "A handful of head teachers in our circulation area feel quite strongly on this issue, but an equal number feel that we are doing the right thing.

"We believe this is a matter of parental choice, and the majority are quite keen to have their child's achievements, be it sporting, cultural or academic, recorded in the Evening Telegraph.

"It would be inappropriate to use just the child's first name as there may be a number of children in the same class with the same name.

"If we were to report on a rugby team in 11 years time, half the team would probably be called Jonny."

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